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Jon Gosselin Embraces the Jewish Community

Jon Gosselin, former star of a reality television show Jon & Kate Plus Eight, about being the parents of twins and sextuplets, has been the focus of a lot of media attention since he separated from Kate, his wife and the mother of his eight children. He’s since moved to the Upper Westside of New York and started dating a Jewish woman, Hailey Glassman. In a recent interview on ParentDish.com with Susan Avery, Gosselin relates, “I just went through Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur and learned about the new year and every Friday is the Shabbat dinner. I love challah bread. I’m learning about Jewish food …”

He told the interviewer that he was “now half Jewish and half Korean.” Gosselin hasn’t discovered any Jewish ancestry as far as I know–he’s apparently just expressing enthusiasm. I hope Gosselin realizes that to become Jewish he would actually need to go through a conversion. Perhaps Rabbi Shmuely Boteach told him during one of their recent conversations that he mentions in his interview with Avery. Also there is no reason one cannot be 100 percent Korean and 100 percent Jewish!

Avery asked Gosselin, “With all this turmoil, where do you turn for parenting advice?” He described his support system as his Jewish “inner circle” and commented that he “only cares what they think.” Important in Jewish tradition is the way a married couple interacts. A parents’ marriage certainly influences how the children are raised. I recommend Gosselin read : Overview on Spouses and Partners at MyJewishLearning.com. Gosselin might also benefit from reading InterfaithFamily.com’s Jewish Food Cheat Sheet as he continues to explore Jewish cuisine.

4 thoughts on “Jon Gosselin Embraces the Jewish Community”

With all the talk, discussion, RE: Conversions to Judaism..we must emphasize that Judaism does not solicit nor encourage converts. In fact, when potential converts come to us, we at least initially discourage them.

It must also be emphasized that only a Halachic conversion, according to Torah Law (i.e. Orthodox sanctioned) is acceptable and has any validity.
The potential convert must accept all the laws of both the Written and Oral Torah (Talmud) believe that they are of divine orgin from G-d at Sinai, and be willing to perform them all, with limitations only due to sex, (women being exempt from certain time related commandments) and being in Israel or outside of it, for certain of the 613 commandments.

The actual conversion must be overseen and sanctioned by an Orthodox
Bais Din who are also committed to the fulfillment of all the 613 Mitzvot.

Once these conditions are met and an individual has undergone a halachically valid conversion, we accept them 100% as a member of the Jewish
people.

I am flattered that you read my blog post. According to the Orthodox halacha, I would agree with you. InterfaithFamily.com works with Jews and potential converts from all movements of Judaism. In the liberal Jewish movements requirements do vary.

Sometimes I wonder whether we as a people should re-think the idea of discouraging converts. Despite the existence of websites like this one, intermarriage still usually results in fewer Jews, not more, and I don’t consider that a good thing.

Note that I am not talking about organized proselytization, which I do not condone.

Thank you for an interesting article. As a Protestant, I must ask you: Why would Jews WANT this guy? He’s playing games with religion, looking for an easy way out of his predicaments, an impending divorce and loss of big income.